Artist News

PJ Harvey tops HMV’s poll of polls

By | Published on Monday 19 December 2011

PJ Harvey

Hopefully distracting at least some attention from those disappointing sales figures, HMV has released its annual poll of polls, working out which records have come up most frequently in the end of year music round ups published by various British media. And the overall record of the year according to this polling? Well, PJ Harvey’s ‘Let England Shake’, obviously.

Look, here’s HMV Music Manager John Hirst saying words: “It’s not a great surprise that Polly should come out on top of this year’s polls, particularly after already winning the Mercury Prize. Musically it’s untouchable, combining deceptively simple songwriting with sublime musicianship and sparse production to great effect. It’s perhaps also appropriate, in some of the most politically charged times in recent memory, that a protest album should be so recognised as a great work”.

But what other albums have been getting year-end approval from multiple media sources? Well, look here, HMV have only gone and published a full Poll Of Polls top 50, which we have very kindly reproduced below.

1. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
2. Bon Iver – Bon Iver
3. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues
4. Radiohead – King Of Limbs
5. tUnE-yArDs – Whokill
6. Wild Beasts – Smother
7. Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring For My Halo
8. James Blake – James Blake
9. Tom Waits – Bad As Me

10. Horrors – Skying
11. Adele – 21
12. Destroyer – Kaputt
13. Real Estate – Days
14. Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes
15. Gillian Welch – Harrow And The Harvest
16. Bjork – Biophilia
17. Washed Out – Within and Without
18. Girls – Father, Son And The Holy Ghost
19. Mastodon – The Hunter
20. Jay-Z and Kanye West – Watch The Throne

21. Frank Ocean – Ultra Nostalgia
22. Wilco – The Whole Love
23. War On Drugs – Slave Ambient
24. Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know
25. Metronomy – English Riviera
26. EMA – Past Life Martyred Saints
27. Florence And The Machine – Ceremonials
28. The Weeknd – House Of Balloons
29. Iceage – New Brigade
30. Shabazz Palaces – Black Up

31. SBTRKT – SBTRKT
32. Drake – Take Care
33. Ryan Adams – Ashes and Fire
34. Yuck – Yuck
35. Antlers – Burst Apart
36. White Denim – D
37. Josh T Pearson – Last Of The Country Gentlemen
38. St Vincent – Strange Mercy
39. King Creosote and John Hopkins – Diamond Mine
40. The Decemberists – The King Is Dead

41. M83 – Hurry Up We’re Dreaming
42. Wild Flag – Wild Flag
43. Feist – Metals
44. Gang Gang Dance – Eye Contact
45. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
46. Fucked Up – David Comes To Life
47. Beirut – Rip Tide
48. Panda Bear – Tomboy
49. My Morning Jacket – Circuital
50. The Black Keys – El Camino



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